Association of timing of palliative care consult on quality care outcomes at a community based hospital.

Abstract

166 Background: Timing of palliative care (PC) consults in hospitalized patients can have an impact on outcomes. Aim: To study the impact of the timing of consults on length of stay (LOS) of PC patients in a community based hospital over a span of 1 year. Additional outcomes included mortality and readmission rates. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of medical records of consecutive patients who were referred to PC during the time period (November 2012- October 2013). LOS of PC patients consulted within and after 48 hours of admission were analyzed. Based on the timing of consult, mortality ratio of the two patient groups were analyzed. In addition, we analyzed the 30, 60 and 90 day readmission rates pre and post PC consult. Results: The LOS of patients seen by PC within 48 hours (N = 353) of admission was 1.20 (variance from expected) versus after 48 hours (N = 187) of admission was 6.28 (variance from expected). The mean difference in LOS between the groups was 5.08 days. The mortality ratio of the two groups was 1.01 (within 48 hours) versus 1.10 (after 48 hours) (p = .131). In addition the decrease in the 30, 60 and 90 day readmission rate was 61.5%, 47% and 42.1% respectively. Conclusions: Early PC consults were associated with a decrease in LOS and readmission rates with no increase in mortality rate. Further studies are needed to validate these findings in the community setting.